About my blogThis blog relates to my academic study of blogs. It details various aspects of my work. Now that I have submitted my thesis, I will try and report some of my findings. I'm also using it to make any observations I have on blogging, and any relevant stories I come across. It's my getting into the spirit of my medium.

About meMy name is Scott Nowson, and this blog reflects the work of my PhD which I received from the University of Edinburgh in 2006.

You can learn more about me, as well as find all my publications, on my website.

Well, somehow I got into a pattern of posting once a week on a Wednesday. This wasn't initially deliberate, but you know, it became a bit of a thing. And then I missed last week because I was just too busy. So I start thinking I should post on another day, so Weblog Wednesday doesn't become a fully ingrained thing. And then it reached this most recent Wednesday and I figured why not! Once more, however, I was busy. So here I am determined to post, because so much has been happening, and I'm going to break it down into bullet points because they can be easier to read.

I have been working quite a bit the last weeks making the final corrections to my thesis. Amanda read the entire thesis for me and identified an impressive number of errors (I have an odd habit of pluralising things in an unnecessarily Ali G ways, and singularising things when there are lot of them [sic]). I've extended my literature review appropriately, which includes significantly rearranging the middle section. I've replaced linear regression with logistic regression for gender, and I added in a paragraph that LaTeX had decided to remove.

The appropriate documentation is with the exam board, the thesis is at the library for fancy dan hard back binding, and the electronic copy has been updated for your reinvigorated reading pleasure.

I have volunteered to help run some perception experiments. The experiments themselves are pretty straightforward, requiring little more than starting groups off and being around to deal with any issues. However, lining up subjects takes a little more effort. This is my first experience with this since my data gathering was done on-line, so I didn't have to worry about such things. It'll be good experience though.

Still not had a chance to look at the corrections required for the ACL paper I talked about last time. They are due pretty soon though so I'll be getting right onto them. not least so that I can finally post the finished paper here and in my web space. We are also thinking about doing another poster for the local event, but the deadline for that is also soon so we'll see.

I am also supposed to be going to the Weblogging Ecosystem workshop next week. It is part of the World Wide Web Conference which is actually being held here in Edinburgh. This makes it very easy to get to, but we haven't sorted out registration yet. Leaving it late I know, online registration has certainly closed. It is being co-chaired by Matt Hurst (amongst others) who I may have mentioned previously. A bit of a homecoming for Matt, getting to see all his old haunts.

There are a few other things which I could talk about, but I feel I've taken enough of people's time right here, so I'll save these for another day. I'm not even going to mention the issues I've been having concerning broken glasses, new trial mis-aligned contact lenses, and withdrawn cleaning solution!!